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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Seven years ago, Adam Greenberg made his major league debut, and this happened. At bat one, pitch one, thud. Greenberg left the field with an On Base Percentage of 1.000, and since then it has not had the chance to go down. He went back to the minors the next season and followed that up with stints in the Dodgers, Royals and Angels organizations. After 2008 though, he was out of baseball.

Four years later, Greenberg has spent time in Independent baseball, as well as playing for the Israeli National Team that was making a bid for World Baseball Classic. At the Age of 31 though, it was pretty safe to say that he was not going to get any offers, from any MLB clubs to play at any level. Not even Billy Beane was going to come calling with that sparkling On Base Percentage of his.

A couple of Days ago, Greenberg and the leader of the One-At-Bat petition Matt Liston were invited on the today show. I'll let the video take it from here.

Did you get the chills too? It's hard to not get choked up watching this go down. His one shot got ripped from him when that De Los Santos fastball tailed up and in cracking him right at the base of the helmet, robbing him of his dream. Then as he sits on this couch telling his story, the Marlins swoop in like the savvy businessmen that they are and offer him one more sip of coffee.

On Tuesday night, Adam Greenberg will get his long awaited second big league at bat when the Miami Marlins take on the New York Mets. Who will he be facing? None other than RA Dickey. Good luck kid. Just remember the old adage, "If it's low, let it go. If it's high, let her fly."

I personally want to see a movie ending here where Adam steps up, takes a pitch, and then scorches one deep in to the right field seats (I have seen The Natural way too many times). But, I'm still realistic. Dickey is a Cy Young front runner who has been making mincemeat of Big League hitters all season long, and it is very possible that Greenberg goes down on strikes (hopefully not looking).

The only thing that the fans can ask of Adam, is that he goes up there swinging. The Marlins are out of the race, the Mets are out of the race, strategy is no longer necessary. You're only on a one day contract and you're not guaranteed anything more than one at bat. Don't go up there looking just to get on base any way that you can, go up there ready to come out of your shoes with each swing. What's the worse that could happen? You get out. Big deal. You still might be able to convince Billy Beane that your .500 OBP is no fluke.